Conjunctivitis outcome evaluation

In other substance use disorders, the use of 12-step interventions is also popular, and participation in 12-step groups is correlated with better outcomes in cocaine abusers (e.g., McKay et al. 1994). However, a smdy of 128 cocaine abusers found that cognitive-behavioral therapy was more efficacious than 12-step facilitation in engendering cocaine abstinence (Maude-Griffm et al. 1998). Thus, the relative efficacy of 12-step approaches for drug use disorders requires further investigation. No known studies have systematically evaluated the efficacy of 12-step treatments in opioid-dependent patients, either alone or in conjunction with pharmacotherapies. 

There are various severity of illness scoring systems for sepsis and trauma (R11). Severity scoring can be used, in conjunction with other risk factors, to anticipate and evaluate outcomes, such as hospital mortality rate. The most widely used system is the Acute Physiology, Age, Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) classification system (K12). The APACHE III was developed to more accurately predict hospital mortality for critically ill hospitalized adults (K13). It provides objective probability estimates for critically ill hospitalized patients treated in intensive care units (ICUs). For critically ill posttrauma patients with sepsis or SIRS, another system for physiologic quantitative classification and severity stratification of the host defense response was described recently (R11). However, this Physiologic State Severity Classification (PSSC) has yet not been applied routinely in ICU setting. 

What is the evidence that hypothermia plus other potential neuroprotective therapies actually does improve outcome compared with individual neuroprotective agents Surprisingly, there are few preclinical and no human studies that have examined this issue. The main reason for this lack of study likely stems from the added complexity necessary for a combined treatment study, and the desire by most researchers to identify individual agents with neuroprotective properties first before proceeding to evaluate combination treatments. However, a handful of experimental treatment studies have been performed using hypothermia in conjunction with other neuroprotective agents, with surprisingly mixed results. 

The eritieal safety proeess parameters need to be determined and, in conjunction with statutory requirements, applied to the SCADA system. The manner in which the SCADA system addresses the critical safety proeess parameters needs to be evaluated and an outcome determined that ensures that the safety parameters are aeeurately monitored and controlled. 

Several strategies to treat alcoholic liver disease have been evaluated. Prednisolone may improve survival in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis and hepatic encephalopathy. Nutrients such as S-adenosylmethionine and polyunsaturated lecithin have been found to have beneficial effects in nonhuman primates and are undergoing clinical trials. Other medications that have been tested include oxandrolone, propylthiouracil, and colchicine. At present, none of these drugs is approved for use in the U.S. for the treatment of alcoholic liver disease. The current primary treatment for liver failure is transplantation in conjunction with abstinence from ethanol. Long-term outcome studies suggest that patients who are alcohol-dependent have survival rates similar to those of patients with other types of liver disease. Alcoholics with hepatitis C may respond to interferon-2a (see Chapter 52). 

Additionally, anonymous self-report is used to measure outcomes in almost all evaluation of school-based interventions. Swearer et al. (2010) suggest more research is needed to determine whether self-report measures alone are sufficiently sensitive to detect changes in bullying over time (p. 41). Although a few researchers have used observational measures (Craig and Pepler, 1997 Low et al., 2010) and Frey et al. (2009) used observation in conjunction with self-report, the time and staff costs of observation may prevent the wholesale use of observation. 

---